Friday the 13th Part III review.
A disco remix of the theme and a third dimension for lucky viewers in 1982 highlight an otherwise by the numbers Jason story. Oh…and he finally gets his iconic mask.
Classic movie reviews will contain spoilers.
Friday the 13th Part III
Directed by Steve Miner
Written by Martin Kitrosser and Carol Watson
Starring Dana Kimmel, Paul Kratka, Tracie Savage, Jeffrey Rogers, Catherine Parks, Larry Zerner and Richard Brooker
Friday the 13th Part III Review
There is a good chance that the first things you remember about Friday the 13th Part III aren’t plot related. You might immediately recall that this is the entry in the long running franchise that was filmed in 3D. Even if you’ve never seen it in that format…there’s no doubt that you picked up on moments filmed specifically to see something pop out of the screen. You may remember Friday the 13th Part III for its inclusion of a banger disco remix of the theme song. It’s so good they just went ahead and played it inside the world of the movie. You probably remember Part III as the one where Jason gets his iconic hockey mask. You may even remember that he gets it from the annoying character who marked the first time in the series where you started to actively root for Jason to kill.
What you probably don’t think too hard about is whether Friday the 13th Part III is a good movie. In the grand scheme of things…taking all horror releases ever into release…it isn’t. Specifically judged on the merits of what one looks for in a Jason Voorhees movie, however…it sits in the upper half of the series. Now, you could argue that this is by default. Once you strip away the three movies that don’t have a traditional Jason Voorhees character running around (1, 5 and 9) …you’re already limiting the list to 3/4ths of the series. Then you dock points for adventures in Manhattan and Outer Space…or that Freddy vs. Jason doesn’t even feel like a Friday movie…you see where this is going.
The truth is that Friday the 13th Part III sits comfortably in the mushy middle of the franchise. Parts 2, 4 and 6 sit comfortably in front of the pack. The true misfires in quality are reserved for Part 5, Jason Goes to Hell, Jason Takes Manhattan and Jason X. Even if you like them…you’ve probably acknowledged that it is in a “so bad it’s good” kind of way. Everything else is a gray area. Part III has always suffered from being the least interesting of the original four films. If you take those as one unbroken story…this is the part that sags. By the time Roy the paramedic is running around…it starts to look better. When the entirety of the series is available…you’ll probably find yourself returning to Part III more often than many.
It certainly benefits from the era it comes from. Despite the occasional annoyance of the movie’s need to film 3D gags…Part III feels right. It isn’t reinventing the wheel. A group of teens cross into Jason’s territory…and he does what Jason’s do. Eventually, Jason whittles the group down to one final girl. She manages to overcome him and survive. What’s interesting is that Friday the 13th Part III is, if you can believe it, the only time that really happens in the entire series. There are multiple survivors in every movie in the series except for the original and this one. Don’t believe me? Let’s do the math:
2 – Ginny and Paul (wherever he went)
4 – Trish and Tommy
5 – Pam, Tommy and Reggie
6 – Megan and Tommy
7 – Tina and Nick
8 – Rennie and Sean
Goes to Hell – Jessica, Steven and whatever that baby’s name was
X – Rowan, Tsunaron and a robot (if you want it)
Freddy vs. – Lori and Will
Remake – Whitney and Clay (maybe he gets them after it ends…they were alive when the credits rolled)
For all the talk about the final girls of this series…a guy survives in almost every one of these movies. Dana Kimmell’s Chris Higgins is our sole survivor this time around. She joins Alice from the original film as the only character with that distinction. Of course, Jason wasn’t the antagonist of the original film. Which means, stunningly, Chris Higgins is the only person to survive a Jason rampage alone. You’d immediately assume that this would place the character high in any ranking of Friday final girls. It doesn’t. Like most of the characters she is pretty forgettable.
The movie attempts to add a backstory for her that is never fully fleshed out. She has had a run in with Jason before…one that doesn’t make a lot of sense if you try to think about it. Still…points for trying to add a level of renewed trauma to her character. Unfortunately, it’s the only thing they really have for her.
Her friends don’t fare much better. Outside of series punching bag Shelly (Larry Zerner) these aren’t the most interesting batch of people. There is also an old stoner couple for some reason. And a biker gang. The biker gang may be the best characters in the movie now that I think about it. At least they get to have some fun. This is one of those entries where it’s ok to root for the killer.
Shelly is the most memorable character in Friday the 13th Part III. It isn’t for any particularly good reason. He’s our comedy character for this installment. He comes off as completely annoying instead of funny. Still…Shelly is a major part of Friday canon. He is the first character to wear the hockey mask that would come to define Jason’s look. In some ways, Shelly’s annoying nature couldn’t have worked out better. It allows you to cheer when the serial killer dispatches him and dons the mask for the first time.
There are a couple of good kills in the mix. Shelly’s death isn’t one of them. He emerges with his throat slashed several minutes after it happened offscreen. How he managed to survive and walk the distance he did is a mystery. The best kills are reserved for Vera (Catherine Parks) and Andy (Jeffrey Rogers). Vera is the recipient of a spear fired through her eye. One of the 3D shots that works without the gimmick. Andy is macheted down the middle while walking on his hands. The camera is looking up from beneath him as blood spurts out and he crumples to the ground. The shot only lasts a moment…but it’s a memorable one.
Not all the kills work. Rick (Paul Kratka) has a good one on paper. In practice, however, his head squeezed, eye popping demise looks silly without the 3D effect it was designed for. Debbie (Tracie Savage) gets the classic knife from below death already done better with Kevin Bacon two movies earlier. Also, her character is pregnant for some reason. It remains a baffling choice since it doesn’t factor into the story, her character arc…or anything else for that matter.
The final showdown between Jason and Chris is the highlight of the movie. Richard Brooker’s Jason is one of the best in the series. They have an exciting clash in a barn with Jason continuously bouncing back from near death experiences. The movie even gives us a neat variation on the dream sequence from the end of the original. Even if you’ll be left wandering where all the water in Crystal Lake has gone.
Is Friday the 13th Part III the best Jason movie? Clearly not. It is, however, unique among them. Once he puts the hockey mask over his face…it becomes more of what people think of when they think of him than the series ever has been. Even if those aren’t the things people are quick to think about when this movie pops into their thoughts.
Scare Value
I’ve always had a soft spot for Friday the 13th Part III. It’s clearly the weakest of the first four installments in the franchise…but it’s still one of only a few times we see classic Jason running amok. He’d be dead after 4, absent from 5, a zombie after 6… The series takes too many odd turns to throw away a simple “Jason kills teens near Crystal Lake” plotline. Sure, it’s been done better. It wasn’t done enough times to dismiss even a somewhat less inspired effort.
3/5
Friday the 13th Part III Links
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Buy on Blu-Ray from Amazon
